Next Contestant
by RogueRaven21
Summary: He may be an easy going kind of guy, but every man has his limits. A night out with Briareos and Deunan at the ESWAT watering hole.
1. Next Contestant

He considered himself an easygoing guy with a girlfriend more then capable of taking care of herself in the bars. Occasionally Briareos felt like breaking the skulls of any asshole who dared to lay a finger on Deunan. Fortunately, his girl could normally detect his mood and call it an early night for both of them. Some nights, however, she put away quite a few drinks with the guys before the cyborg's mood became evident. This was going to be one of those nights.

Bri didn't need the Hecatonchires to tell him it was stupid and that Deunan would smack him later for acting like a jealous boyfriend. He knew the feeling came from his underlying fear that the beautiful girl would come to her senses and finally realize she deserved a man entirely of flesh and blood and not a monstrosity of synthetic skin and metal. Knowing that didn't make the violent urges go away, sometimes it just made them worse.

"I warned that newb to stay away from her, but it doesn't look like he listened to me", Briareos overheard from the ESWAT officer talking next to him at the bar.

"I lost count of how many she's had, but you know Deunan, there's nothing she can't handle", the other officer said, clearly not paying attention to the cyborg behind her.

Briareos turned to try and locate his missing partner and saw the new guy subtly and steadily backing the blonde into the dark corner towards the back door. Bri didn't miss the dead man gently brushing a tress of hair away from her lovely face.

The cyborg shot off of the bar stool he had occupied most of the evening and began storming through the crowd, cracking his knuckles as he went. The other bar patrons quickly recognized his juggernaut charge and dove out of his way, no one wanting to get between him and his target.

He caught Deunan's gaze two seconds before he clamped a hand on the guy's shoulder, and saw a glimmer of fear in her turquoise eyes. Not fear of him, but for him and what he was about to do to the poor unaware bastard who picked the wrong girl to mess with.

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><p>AN: I was listening to Nickleback's "Next Contestant" and this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. Curse you rabid plot bunnies! It also came from a conversation with a very mellow guy (alot like Bri actually) who told me some times easy going guys just go into angry mode when something hits them wrong. I always just called it testosterone poisoning. Sadly still don't own Appleseed. I'd be happy to own the Citizen watch from XIII but that cost as much as the downpayment on my car. Has a sad.


	2. Morning After

Briareos came to on the floor beside the bed and instantly knew he had done something incredibly stupid the night before. As soon as the beautiful girl in the bed woke up he would get it for whatever he had done. He just wished he could remember what _it_ was.

Running a hand over his head, the cyborg felt a few new dings he couldn't recall having before. Then he remembered the fight with the new ESWAT guy who had tried to get Deunan out the backdoor of the bar. No one had tried to break up the brawl; no one had wanted to get between a pissed off cyborg and a drunken moron who had been warned. After the medics hauled the guy away, he had proceeded to take part in a celebratory and nearly endless round of drinks before stumbling home with his equally drunken girl under his arm.

"Are you okay?" Deunan's voice, groggy with sleep, jarred him out of his thoughts.

Bri looked up and saw the disheveled blond peering over the edge of the bed at him. "Yeah, I think so."

"You scared me last night. I thought you were going to kill that guy."

"I was debating it," he joked weakly, testing the surprisingly calm waters.

"We can't afford to have you thrown out of ESWAT, I still owe Yoshi on the landmate repairs". Resting her head to one side, she looked at him for a long moment before whispering, "Thank you".

He chuckled quietly. "Here I was going to tell you I was sorry for what happened."

"No." She shook her head, "I'd had too many and didn't realize how close to the backdoor I was until you showed up."

"So, why am I on the floor?" Briareos asked cautiously.

The blond smirked wickedly. "Because you started getting friendlier then I was feeling up to and I booted you. It just happened you were closer to the edge then I was thinking. You hit the floor and didn't come back up."

"Does that mean I can come back up now?" he tilted his head to one side, trying to look adorable.

Her smirk became coy as she patted the mattress beside her. "Come on up handsome, the sheets are still warm."

That was all the encouragement he needed.

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><p>AN: Finishing up the night out on the town. My thanks to my Church for being an awesome guy and pointing out my massive errors. Afraid I'm too tired for anything else. Still don't own them. Sads.


End file.
